Armchair Mayor

Mel Rothenburger is the former Editor of The Daily News in Kamloops, B.C. (retiring in 2012), and past mayor of Kamloops (1999-2005). He continued to write columns for The Daily News until it ceased publication Jan. 11, 2014, and did regular commentary for CBC Radio.

Armchair Mayor
ROTHENBURGER: A low-key start with high hopes of changing the face of local politics
THERE WERE NO BALLOONS, banners, placards or cheering crowds at Friday's official announcement of the BC Conservative candidates for the two Kamloops ridings. Just the candidates themselves, a couple of supporters from the party, some reporters and a homeless guy who happened by on his rounds.Never mind, it was a pleas...
Mar 16, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: We should get rid of governors-general and their free-spending ways
GOVERNOR-GENERAL Mary Simon has been awarded a salary boost of $11,200 for 2024, bringing her annual paycheque to $362,800. She doesn't need it and, sorry, she doesn't deserve it.Simon came into office with high hopes as a governor-general who could bring people together, partly because she has indigenous roots.While s...
Mar 14, 2024
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ARMCHAIR MAYOR
ROTHENBURGER: It was a good day around the City council table for a change
IT WAS A GOOD DAY at Kamloops City council yesterday. It's hard to know where to begin but let's start with the plan for a cleanup of beaches.It's a great idea, one that will generate some new pride in River City. Similar to the Adopt-A-Road program, the Clean-The-Beach program will result in a cleanup of the river sho...
Mar 13, 2024
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Armchair Mayor
ROTHENBURGER: Battle for new Kamloops Centre riding bound to be contentious
THE MAN WHO THINKS non-profit agencies that criticize City council should be barred from receiving grant funding wants to be the next MLA for Kamloops Centre.Bill Sarai announced his intention this week to seek the NDP nomination for the Oct. 19 provincial election in the newly configured urban riding. With his name re...
Mar 09, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: Sending KFR medical response issue to committee is no answer
ASSUMING COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE recommendations are confirmed when Kamloops City council sits in regular session, taxpayers will be on the hook for a slightly lower increase than originally predicted.Tuesday was the day to deal with so-called "supplementary" budget items, a wish list generated from City Hall ...
Mar 07, 2024
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ARMCHAIR MAYOR
ROTHENBURGER: Caputo's melodramatic video aside, prison system needs review
MP FRANK CAPUTO'S video on killer Paul Bernardo's living conditions is dramatic, even theatrical, but it turns out it might not be totally accurate.With thumping background music, file footage and a declaration that "I came face to face with Paul Bernardo," the seven-minute production has gone viral on social...
Mar 06, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: Wokeism reigns with banning of classics from school library shelves
SHADES OF FAHRENHEIT 451. That's the Ray Bradbury novel from 1953, later made into a couple of movies, about a future in which books have been outlawed and firemen (i.e. firefighters) burn them.It's about censorship and the destruction of knowledge so the state can more easily control the populace. The Surrey school bo...
Mar 05, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: Oregon recriminalizes while B.C. doubles down on public drug use
THE B.C. COURT OF APPEAL has rejected a bid by the provincial government to let its Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act go into force. So an injunction against enforcing the Act remains in effect, at least for now. Those who believe drug use should be allowed in most public places are celebrating t...
Mar 04, 2024
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Armchair Mayor
ROTHENBURGER: The turbulent era that led to an apology to the Sons of Freedom
THE SONS OF FREEDOM Doukhobor community received an official apology and $10 million this week for the removal of children from their homes in the 1950s.Without question, it was a traumatic experience for those kids, a heavy-handed response to a social problem rooted in religious radicalism. At the time, though, attitu...
Mar 02, 2024
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ARMCHAIR MAYOR
ROTHENBURGER: We're right where we should be on getting a new cancer centre
NOW WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE with the cancer centre. Doesn't seem like it, but we're right where we should be.Last week's provincial budget has local politicians hopping mad because it didn't include mention of the cancer centre. The excuse given by the government is that it missed a printing deadline.That sounds pretty...
Feb 29, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: There's still a lot of fence mending to do between City and TRU
THERE'S STILL A LOT of fence mending to do between Thompson Rivers University and Kamloops City council.TRU president Brett Fairbairn visited yesterday's council meeting in the wake of council's tough-talking insistence that the Summit Drive pedestrian-cyclist overpass must go where the City says it should go.TRU, on t...
Feb 28, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: New rule from the NDP - don't call yourself a British Columbian
BRITISH COLUMBIANS have reason to be cheesed off over an NDP government writing guide that tells us we should stop using the term "British Columbians."Here's what it says: "The term 'British Columbians' is often used to reference people living in B.C. This term excludes Indigenous Peoples who may not ide...
Feb 27, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: The number 31,000 should be a wakeup call for Ukraine's allies
THIRTY-ONE THOUSAND. That's how many Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia's illegal invasion of their country was launched two years ago.The anniversary was on Saturday, and President Volodymyr Zelenski revealed the number yesterday, the first time his government has provided a total. It doesn't include tho...
Feb 26, 2024
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Armchair Mayor
ROTHENBURGER: What's so great about being the third fastest growing city in Canada?
GROW, GROW, GROW. We can't stop talking about it. Growth is good. Growth is God. We must go higher, wider, bigger.The growth bug hits Kamloops every once in a while, like now, when everybody gets excited about how quickly the city is expanding. We're calling ourselves the third fastest growing city in Canada.It's in al...
Feb 24, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: Free speech versus protecting schools from disruptive protests
THRONE SPEECHES are typically vapid snoozers, and B.C.'s NDP government didn't let us down this week. The Throne Speech is supposed to give us a general idea of what the government's priorities are for the year, a precursor to the budget.As it happens, the budget is today. At any rate, the Speech was - as is often the ...
Feb 22, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: Council should have remembered the Wealthy Barber's advice
FORMER CITY COUNCILLOR Arjun Singh must have been sitting on the edge of his seat Tuesday as the current council considered ways to reduce an expected budget increase for this year.The council decided to cut an annual levy for climate action measures in half, from .35 per cent to .175 per cent for 2024 and take another...
Feb 21, 2024
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ROTHENBURGER: Learning to live without plastic straws and grocery checkout bags
IT'S AMAZING how we're able to adapt to changes we insisted we'd never be able to adapt to.It took a few decades but we're weaning ourselves off single-use plastics quite nicely. A Research Co. poll shows most British Columbians are happy to see the end of plastic checkout bags, straws, stir sticks, six-pack rings, pla...
Feb 20, 2024
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ARMCHAIR MAYOR
ROTHENBURGER: Who were the 'divisive' ones in TNRD rural tax clash?
THE WORDS 'DIVISIVE' and "irresponsible" were liberally tossed around as local-government reps met this week. There was emotion, talk of the need for "teamwork" vs. "team sports," of feeling "uncomfortable." "It seems you're pitting us against you," Kamloops councillor ...
Feb 17, 2024
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